


Equinoxes

by ljs



Category: Greek and Roman Mythology
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-01
Updated: 2018-10-01
Packaged: 2019-07-23 12:11:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 608
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16158728
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ljs/pseuds/ljs
Summary: Two triple-drabbles: The First Day of Spring, The First Day of Autumn.





	Equinoxes

FIRST DAY OF SPRING

Every year Hades starts brooding somewhere around mid-February, and Persephone will tell you that _no one_ broods like the Lord of the Underworld. It's hoarfrost frowns, it's cold to the bones.

She doesn't complain, though.

She knows he hates when she's gone. He doesn't say it, but his shadow in the lamplit halls of their home lengthens and twists like a cape when they walk together. She knows she could see that shadow caressing hers if she wished, and she feels a kiss on her exposed nape, feels loved and enfolded. But they never look back.

("That bloody Orpheus did it to himself," he once said to her, acknowledging others' loss, others' stories. "Just don't look back! It's a rule!")

In the weeks before she leaves, he makes her drinks, dark and sweet and rich, that warm her like the absent sun. He sits with her for hours on the banks of the Styx, their fingers entwined as if the strongest tendrils of the hardiest vines, those that thrive through winter. He lays his lips against her temple and breathes love and death against skin, into blood.

She drinks his gifts. She holds on to him. She absorbs love, reserves death.

The day the season changes, he walks her to the river. Mother is watching and waiting on the other side, but Persephone kisses him nevertheless, kisses him for six months' worth of longing. "I'll be back, husband," she whispers, and then sets foot on the ferry. Cerberus barks once, like a full-throated laugh. Hades is silent. She feels a shadow's kiss on her nape, and she smiles.

As Persephone goes over the dark water, she lays her fingers on her lips and thinks of him, of gifts and kisses and death. But she doesn't look back. It's a rule.

.......................

FIRST DAY OF AUTUMN

What she hears first is barking. 

The sound of a welcoming dog (with three throats) ripples across the dark into Charon's craft. At the prow, Persephone smiles to herself, and puts her fingers to her lips.

The rules say she should be silent, but oh, it's hard not to call his name.

Mother has kept her longer each summer. Yes, Persephone understands her divided duties to above and below. She hasn't complained. But in the last week of the season, she finds herself unable to sleep. She goes out into the night, wraps it around her like her husband's arms, and dreams of him.

Cerberus barks again. Again she presses her lips together on her husband's name. 

It is always a sudden rush, from one dark to another on the far shores of the Styx. A stone jetty curves out into midnight water, gathering ripples as the boat nears. There, close enough to the river that the toes of his boots are wet, stands Hades, his dog at his side.

He looks the same, she thinks gladly. He always does. Her Lord of the Underworld, holding together his kingdom. She knows him, though, and she sees his smile underneath the gravity his position requires. 

Cerberus barks once more, and then falls as silent as his master. 

Hades grasps her hand and pulls her into their winter kingdom. She leaps from ferry to stone, from summer to autumn, from life to just another kind of life. 

When he kisses her, she gives him her mouth, gives him spices and warmth. "Hullo, husband," she says when she can speak. 

"Hullo, wife," he says, and gives Charon a coin, and circles her waist with his arm. She absorbs love, reserves death.

"Let's go home," she says, and lays her head against his shoulder.


End file.
